CBS-North Carolina misrepresents truth about sex offenders, pornography

By ROBIN . . . Among the more annoying things our movement must contend with is the endless amount of slop and imprecise reporting by professional journalists and broadcasters. The following story out of Statesville is a perfect example. To its dubious credit, the CBS-North Carolina network has made the story available as a “staff report” rather than attaching anyone’s name (and journalistic integrity) to this gibberish. But, that doesn’t free CBS-North Carolina from contributing its portion towards misinforming and misleading the public about the legal requirements for citizens who are forced to register their names as sex offenders.

Read plainly, the story below would lead anyone to believe (certainly many registered citizens, and even people in law enforcement) that one’s requirement to register as a sex offender in North Carolina also includes a prohibition on his ability to download or possess ANY pornography (however it’s defined). Just to be clear, we are NOT talking about child pornography (again, however that is defined, which nobody really knows from one jurisdiction to the next), but merely the garden variety pornographic material that fills the pages of most retail magazines and websites these days.

Missing from the story is a significant fact that the reporter(s) has a duty to make abundantly clear: Mr. Foster was on probation and the prohibition on downloading or possessing pornography was a condition imposed (and a reasonable one, probably) by his supervising officer(s).

Where CBS-North Carolina republishes the deputy’s statement that Foster possessed “images which were in violation of the special conditions for Registered Sex Offenders,” it does so with a cavalier disregard for the truth and conveniently hides behind a false official statement. While it’s legal for CBS-North Carolina to publish the utterances of local law enforcement officials, solid journalism would seek to ensure that the public isn’t led to believe falsehoods merely because they’re uttered by government officials. That’s exactly the sort of “fake news” that makes it possible for such a charge to stick.

To be clear, there is ABSOLUTELY NO restriction in North Carolina on downloading or possessing pornography by registered sex offenders who are not ALSO serving some form of court-ordered supervision. ZERO. Any statement otherwise is a lie, be it official or not.

STATESVILLE, N.C. (WBTV) — A registered sex offender in Iredell County is facing charges after authorities said he had pornographic images, deputies say.

According to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office, 26-year-old Kevin Anthony Foster had several pornographic images on his electronic devices. Deputies arrested Foster on Nov. 29 for a probation violation, and he was given a $100,000 secured bond.

On Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office said deputies continued to investigate the electronic devices and Foster was additionally charged with two felony counts of failing to inform of new changes to online identifiers. He was given no bond on those charges, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies say Foster was convicted in 2013 of felony indecent liberties with a child. He was placed on 36 months supervised probation after serving jail time and was placed on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry, according to deputies.

While on the registry, Foster is not allowed to have “pornographic material of any kind,” deputies said.

Deputies released this statement Tuesday:

“There is no evidence at this time to show he possessed child pornography although he did possess images which were in violation of the special conditions for Registered Sex Offenders.”

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